Sunday, September 7, 2014

“Southmost”
– Brownsville, Texas – Cuban Alfredo Monsees lives in “no man’s
land,” a neighborhood the locals jokingly call “the gated
community,” which lies between the Rio Grande and the fabled border
wall, cut off from America by a tall fence of steel pickets that cuts
through his land.

He’s
lived on his grandfather’s 34-acre farm most of his life. His
father rode with Pancho Villa and Emiliano Zapata, raiding and
skirmishing along the Texas border because, “He knew that if there
is no middle class, there is no possibility the people of Mexico may
accumulate wealth.” A rotund, russet-colored man, “Rusty” is 66
and lives on about $750 per month in Social Security benefits.